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550 reviews for:
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Arlie Russell Hochschild
4.09 AVERAGE
550 reviews for:
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
Arlie Russell Hochschild
4.09 AVERAGE
This timely book describes Arlie Russel Hochschild's four years in Louisiana, befriending dozens of locals, many of whom agree with the Tea Party ideals of reducing the size and scope of government, lowering taxes and deregulating industry. She eventually uncovers the "deep story" that many in the South believe. Generally, it's a story about white conservatives waiting in line to fulfill the American Dream, while seeing people like immigrants, people of color, women, LGBTQ folks and others "cutting" in line ahead of them, with the help of the government. Fairness and honor hold high priority for these Louisiana natives, as does the value of a hard day's work, church, family and community.
They have put up with terrible pollution that has destroyed their homes and communities, and not complained, called themselves victims or "poor-me's," or asked for a handout, but here is the irony (or as Hochschild calls it "the Paradox"): they do not blame the companies who have caused the destruction of their waterways, homes and communities. They blame the government which failed to enforce the rules (even though they voted for politicians who are against regulation, and support politicians who cut government spending so much that enforcement couldn't happen effectively). Trying to understand this paradox is the basis for the book, and understanding the mindset and feelings of the people who live with this irony is the fruit of reading it.
I came away from the book with a clearer understanding of the Tea Party mindset, and much sadness for those hard-working people who are living in pollution so bad that some days they cannot even leave their homes: they are suffering so that the rest of us can have plastics, and other spoils of modernity.
The author does a great job of helping me understanding the feelings of Southerners, and I can respect those feelings. However, the economic and statistical facts still do not support the Tea Party ideals, as Appendix C makes clear. It seems to me that if Red States continue to sell their virtual souls to polluters, desperately hoping that will provide jobs (most of which end up going to immigrants who are willing to work for less, or better educated folks from other states), they will continue their downhill slide.
They have put up with terrible pollution that has destroyed their homes and communities, and not complained, called themselves victims or "poor-me's," or asked for a handout, but here is the irony (or as Hochschild calls it "the Paradox"): they do not blame the companies who have caused the destruction of their waterways, homes and communities. They blame the government which failed to enforce the rules (even though they voted for politicians who are against regulation, and support politicians who cut government spending so much that enforcement couldn't happen effectively). Trying to understand this paradox is the basis for the book, and understanding the mindset and feelings of the people who live with this irony is the fruit of reading it.
I came away from the book with a clearer understanding of the Tea Party mindset, and much sadness for those hard-working people who are living in pollution so bad that some days they cannot even leave their homes: they are suffering so that the rest of us can have plastics, and other spoils of modernity.
The author does a great job of helping me understanding the feelings of Southerners, and I can respect those feelings. However, the economic and statistical facts still do not support the Tea Party ideals, as Appendix C makes clear. It seems to me that if Red States continue to sell their virtual souls to polluters, desperately hoping that will provide jobs (most of which end up going to immigrants who are willing to work for less, or better educated folks from other states), they will continue their downhill slide.
This book was well written and interesting but could have been much shorter.
The author does an amazing job making friends and discovering the philosophies of far-right conservatives. Reading this after January 6, makes me unwilling to find common ground, but I'm glad that I read the book.
Author attempted to counteract the "empathy wall" to better understand Tea Party loyalists' views in Louisiana, using the environment as a control subject. In doing so, the sociological approach to sussing out each person's "deep story" necessarily omitted some potentially incendiary topics, like race, that were mostly relegated to a paperback-edition afterword to the first edition. It is thus frustrating to see how the value of breaking down empathy walls can yield some insights and even constructive conversation on some topics, yet truly divisive topics like race and even what constitutes an actual fact seemingly cannot be bridged or even talked about, except as a response to the Tea Party supporters' views articulated in lengthy end notes. In this book, race is mostly relegated to unsupported claims of "I'm not a racist" and the author helpfully placing race as a factor explaining why Tea Party supporters feel like they are being overtaken on the socioeconomic ladder (deep story hint: non-whites should wait their turn further down the ladder).
Some things are wrong, and always wrong. Some things are facts, and always facts. In the effort to help us see life through the Tea Party supporters' eyes, I'm struck by the number of times I am asked to put "wrong" and "facts" aside in order to buy into the deep story.
Some things are wrong, and always wrong. Some things are facts, and always facts. In the effort to help us see life through the Tea Party supporters' eyes, I'm struck by the number of times I am asked to put "wrong" and "facts" aside in order to buy into the deep story.
A really fascinating read that I recommend to anyone curious about why people voted for Donald Trump.
Speaking as a bleeding-heart liberal, you couldn't ask for an easier way to begin the process of intellectually and emotionally reaching into the Tea Party experience, with as much attention to scientific rigor and empirical data as could be asked for.
This is a hard book to read, and everyone should read it.
It took me months to get around to finishing this book. It tied my stomach in knots every time I picked it up. I felt so many conflicting emotions, especially after the election of Trump.
On the one hand, I felt bad for the people in Louisville that Hochschild interviewed, and people like them all over the country, who are getting screwed by polluting industries and trying to make themselves heroes of their own stories through endurance, boldness, or faith. More than once, the author points out that they have the worst of both worlds: getting sick and dying and losing the natural environment they cherish as much as anyone while being looked down upon by people like me, who depend on them for every drop of gasoline and every plastic container my organic yogurt comes in.
Yet the people she interviewed don’t want to be pitied, even if pity is deserved. They don’t want to be seen as victims, even if objectively, they have been victimized. When my heart goes out to them, am I taking away the honor and dignity that’s the last, most important thing they have?
And also, my heart aches for the people they don’t consider: my queer friends, my friends who are people of color, immigrants, Muslims, and my fellow Jews. We have been strangers in our own land forever, I want to say. And it is our own land, and America has always been about cities and newcomers...more so today than ever. We don’t want to replace you. Just open your eyes and see your place is alongside us, not above us.
Hochschild tells the “deep story” of people standing in line for the American Dream and watching people cut the line. I’m grateful to her for putting it into words. But it takes a huge amount of ignorance and willful self-deception to believe that story. I think racism and xenophobia are much more important preconditions for the acceptance of that belief than she is willing to let on.
To my mind, there is no line. Capitalists cut to the front of the line a long time ago and put up a red velvet rope, with a bouncer to keep most people out.
Strength, to me, is not so much uncomplaining endurance. That’s remaining silent in the face of injustice, and I find no virtue in that—even when the injustice is being perpetrated against you. I need your voice to speak up with mine, and I rely on your strength to fight together for what is right. Accepting things as they are is turning your back on your neighbor for your own comfort, whether material or emotional. It’s a form of betrayal.
So, I am far from understanding as much as I should, but what I do understand is not encouraging. I don’t have a working theory of how to talk across the divide. The author points out a few issues where socialist left and Tea Party right could agree and ally: reducing the prison population, getting money out of politics, and (especially among young people) even protecting the environment. But without a shared vision, how do we keep predatory capitalists from turning these potential allies into adversaries again?
Also, “But I am a good person and I don’t feel sorry for them” (p.227) misses the point. Good people are not enough. We need a good society.
It took me months to get around to finishing this book. It tied my stomach in knots every time I picked it up. I felt so many conflicting emotions, especially after the election of Trump.
On the one hand, I felt bad for the people in Louisville that Hochschild interviewed, and people like them all over the country, who are getting screwed by polluting industries and trying to make themselves heroes of their own stories through endurance, boldness, or faith. More than once, the author points out that they have the worst of both worlds: getting sick and dying and losing the natural environment they cherish as much as anyone while being looked down upon by people like me, who depend on them for every drop of gasoline and every plastic container my organic yogurt comes in.
Yet the people she interviewed don’t want to be pitied, even if pity is deserved. They don’t want to be seen as victims, even if objectively, they have been victimized. When my heart goes out to them, am I taking away the honor and dignity that’s the last, most important thing they have?
And also, my heart aches for the people they don’t consider: my queer friends, my friends who are people of color, immigrants, Muslims, and my fellow Jews. We have been strangers in our own land forever, I want to say. And it is our own land, and America has always been about cities and newcomers...more so today than ever. We don’t want to replace you. Just open your eyes and see your place is alongside us, not above us.
Hochschild tells the “deep story” of people standing in line for the American Dream and watching people cut the line. I’m grateful to her for putting it into words. But it takes a huge amount of ignorance and willful self-deception to believe that story. I think racism and xenophobia are much more important preconditions for the acceptance of that belief than she is willing to let on.
To my mind, there is no line. Capitalists cut to the front of the line a long time ago and put up a red velvet rope, with a bouncer to keep most people out.
Strength, to me, is not so much uncomplaining endurance. That’s remaining silent in the face of injustice, and I find no virtue in that—even when the injustice is being perpetrated against you. I need your voice to speak up with mine, and I rely on your strength to fight together for what is right. Accepting things as they are is turning your back on your neighbor for your own comfort, whether material or emotional. It’s a form of betrayal.
So, I am far from understanding as much as I should, but what I do understand is not encouraging. I don’t have a working theory of how to talk across the divide. The author points out a few issues where socialist left and Tea Party right could agree and ally: reducing the prison population, getting money out of politics, and (especially among young people) even protecting the environment. But without a shared vision, how do we keep predatory capitalists from turning these potential allies into adversaries again?
Also, “But I am a good person and I don’t feel sorry for them” (p.227) misses the point. Good people are not enough. We need a good society.
She talks a lot about scaling the "empathy wall" to understand the Tea Party. I grew up in the culture she describes and even after this book, I struggle to understand the lack of empathy these people have for their "others," i.e., refugees, people of color, etc. It never occurs to them that their irritation with others cutting in line completely fails to account for their own white privilege.
Arlie Russell Hochschild focuses on the rise of the Tea Party, the appeal of Trump and how right-wingers in Louisiana are able to support both amid the devastating environmental pollution they've endured at the hands of oft-worshipped "industry" (chemical plants and oil companies, which everybody promises will lead to loads of jobs). (Her focus is motivated in picking a controversial topic that literally affects everyone; thus, pollution it is because boy, is Louisiana polluted as readers learn.)
Hochschild doesn't offer all the answers, but she does bring an interesting, thorough look at the "deep story" of self-identifying Tea Partiers. And there is a certain clinging to emotional narratives and political discourse that simply disregards fact. Hochschild doesn't give a lot of indication of how she handled being confronted with statistics or ideas that were plain wrong, or how one can continue a conversation through such a knowledge barrier, but that wasn't really the point of her book anyway, and it's still worth reading.
In one sense, Hochschild is able to climb the "empathy wall" as she describes, in becoming friends with the Louisiana Tea Party voters, and I reckon she is able to better understand their perspective by the end of the book (as might you, reader). However, I'm unsure what the "empathy wall" truly means to those interviewed. I, too, know these kind, friendly folk, but I'm still not clear on our political common ground.
Hochschild doesn't offer all the answers, but she does bring an interesting, thorough look at the "deep story" of self-identifying Tea Partiers. And there is a certain clinging to emotional narratives and political discourse that simply disregards fact. Hochschild doesn't give a lot of indication of how she handled being confronted with statistics or ideas that were plain wrong, or how one can continue a conversation through such a knowledge barrier, but that wasn't really the point of her book anyway, and it's still worth reading.
In one sense, Hochschild is able to climb the "empathy wall" as she describes, in becoming friends with the Louisiana Tea Party voters, and I reckon she is able to better understand their perspective by the end of the book (as might you, reader). However, I'm unsure what the "empathy wall" truly means to those interviewed. I, too, know these kind, friendly folk, but I'm still not clear on our political common ground.